My Writing Journey began after I married my high school sweetheart and had two children while working as a temp (shorthand and typing) for various companies. I read storybooks to our son and daughter at bedtime and started writing short stories on my portable typewriter while everyone slept. During this time, I took a course from Palmer Writing School, which led me to doing writing assignments that had to be turned in by a certain date. This helped me to understand that writing for a living meant completing a book for publication by an editorial deadline, or what I had written would not get published if I couldn’t make the deadline, say, in time for a Christmas book.
Eventually, I went to work on a permanent basis for an oil & gas company during the day and attended Houston Community College at night to get an associate’s degree in business administration. Two years into my college plan, I discovered that HCC offered a creative writing course. My college path changed direction, and I completed four semesters of creative writing.
It was during this time that I met Patricia Kay who would later become a USA Today Bestselling author of 50 plus novels. Pat invited me to her first book signing of her first published romance Cinderella Girl written under her pen name Trisha Alexander. At the book signing, Pat invited me to attend a meeting of West Houston RWA, where the members were either published romance writers or aspiring romance writers or, like me, just wanted to be around serious writers of fiction.
I must say here that, at the time, I wasn’t interested in learning how to write romances. I just knew I wanted to write stories. And I figured WHRWA (a chapter of the national organization Romance Writers of America®) was a good place to start, so I joined the group in 1991. I was also required to join RWA that held yearly conferences, a number of which I attended.
At WHRWA, I met and learned from a number of published authors who gave workshops during the monthly meetings. Among those published authors were Susan Wiggs, Barbara Dawson Smith, Heather MacAllister, Deeanne Gist, Sarah Andre, Cheryl Bolen, Christie Craig, Shana Galen, and Kerrelyn Sparks.
These talented authors shared their knowledge of how to develop the characters that peopled their books, how to filter in back story without stopping the action of the story, and how to introduce the romantic element that develops between the hero and heroine who are brought together because of a mutual dilemma they need to resolve on the way to their happily ever after ending. Sounds simple, right? It’s not.
I mentioned Christie Craig who also wrote non-fiction articles for different magazines. I was able to use what I learned from Christie to work as a freelance writer for various magazines. This led me to serve as a copy editor for Cowboy Sports & Entertainment magazine as well as AAA Texas and AAA New Mexico magazines, all while working at my full-time job and helping my children with their homework after dinner.
During this time, I joined the Manuscripters Guild that later morphed into the Houston Writers League, where I served as President and Conference Chair. HWL was a group of writers who wrote in different genres like westerns, military sagas, science fiction, historical fiction, literary fiction, etc.
As a member of the League of Romance Writers (formerly known as West Houston RWA), I have served as the Newsletter Editor, Membership Chair, Treasurer, and The Emily Contest Chair. I am also a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). And, over the years, I have written ten romance books, three of which I’m hoping to publish as a trilogy.
All of this knowledge came in handy while I assisted my father-in-law, Joe Carl Martin, Jr., in writing his memoir, God’s Hand On My Shoulder: From WWII Bomber Pilot to Building Churches in Mexico. Carl was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross during WWII for saving his 9-member crew after his plane was rammed by a German ME-109, which destroyed most of the tail section of the four-engine B-17 bomber he was piloting.
In addition to recording what Carl told me, I did a ton of research to confirm everything he told me. And my husband really got to know his father while I worked on the book, which I self-published in 2017.
Following the book’s publication and during our periodic visits, Carl would say, “Did I tell you about . . .” And I’d say, “No, sir, you didn’t.” I made quick notes on a small tablet I kept in my purse of all the additional information he shared, then I revised his book following his passing at the age of 98 on September 28, 2021.
None of the family members wanted Carl’s roll-top desk, so my husband and I found a place for it in our home. While going through all the cubby holes and drawers, we found his Distinguished Flying Cross Citation, which I included at the end of the last chapter in the revised book that I self-published in 2022.
